Sunday, December 26, 2004

Home Cured Gravadlax on Loft-Cooked Potato Chips

Our Christmas feast started with Champagne. I knew that Veuve Cliquot is a favourite of many of my guests so we bought a magnum. My mother always used to buy me a treat of smoked salmon whenever I spent Christmas with her in England and so, in honour of that memory, I decided to start with salmon-based canapes. I'd spotted a recipe on Epicurious.com that looked and sounded delicious and decided to give it a try.

Making the potato chips was not so easy. Cutting them in thin slices was no problem with the aid of a mandolin. Cooking them to the right level of brownness was more difficult. I overcooked my first batch and several of them were burnt. I discovered that each little individual potato slice cooks at a slightly different rate from its neighbours. You can pretty much leave them on their own for the first 10 minutes, but once you have turned them you have to keep checking them, literally, every minute, removing the golden ones from the tray immediately. This part of the process was a little labour intensive. The potatoes also shrink to about half their size once cooked. As I had bought small potatoes the resulting crisps were very tiny. Next time I would use a medium-sized potato instead.

Assemble the canapes right at the very last minute, because as soon as the fish is atop the potato slices, they will begin to soften. No worries, they taste delicious and you will probably find your guests gobble them all up in no time.

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'Becks and Posh' is modern cockney for 'nosh'. Follow English-Girl-Abroad, Sam Breach, on her culinary travels, mainly in the San Francisco Bay Area, but also further afield, whilst she plays at being amateur restaurant critic, wine taster, food photographer, cocktail connoisseur, party planner, good food forager and practising home cook, with trusted French advisor, Fred, by her side.